Griff.

Actually it is more complex.
We also rely on a population that has both the inclination and the skills to resist.
Many year ago, when the internet was young I read the CIA world fact book .
They rated the capability of NZ to defend itself high because of the skill set of the average Kiwi. Most of us own a pair of tramping boots that have been used in anger at some stage . Many of us can and have used a rifle. We can as a rule swim.These things might be normal to kiwis in many places they are something that you have to be trained for from the basics.
I once had a discussion with a Koran about his military training.
He told a story of 500 young recruits lined up practicing the novel idea of swimming on a hard concrete parade ground. Sound amusing to us but to them it was a part of their serious military training.
We are still very much an outdoors focused population that grow up with skills that in many country’s are the preserve of only a few .
Any country trying to invade here would have the both the Tyranny of Distance and the skilled, independently minded and resistive population to contend with.

Corky

30 years ago I would have agreed with you, Griff. I’m not so sure about our skill sets now, thought. Or our mental fortitude. Looking at all these young snowflakes getting into flash SUVs after school; putting in ear buds while watching the back-seat TV as mum drives them a block to home doesn’t give me great confidence.

PDB

Griff: “They rated the capability of NZ to defend itself high because of the skill set of the average Kiwi”

Everybody playing ‘Fortnite” nowadays will certainly see them well prepared for an island invasion…..

Griff: “We can as a rule swim.”

What? All the way to Australia for them to defend us?

Griff: “He told a story of 500 young recruits lined up practicing the novel idea of swimming on a hard concrete parade ground. Sound amusing to us but to them it was a part of their serious military training.”

No doubt you tried it, dived in head first as a starting point and haven’t recovered since.

High Flying Duck

I’m also of the opinion the religious overtones are a bit grating in the anthem, as is the insular and introspective tone.

This article was interesting though, and puts some context around the anthem – I’m still not a great fan, but look at it in a slightly different light now:

“…It’s a pitiable whining plea to an over-protective deity, they say, with God name-checked 11 times; it was written by (good Lord forbid) an Irishman; it demonstrates an unhealthy paranoia about foreign invaders. (Māori might argue it’s a bit late for that, one friend notes drily).

It would be tempting to adopt this analysis and join the free and easy calls for Dave Dobbyn’s Loyal or Fred Dagg’s We don’t know how lucky we are to be made our national anthem, in a gumbooted paean to the Kiwiana of yesteryear.

But here are four oft-overlooked reasons why Thomas Bracken’s God Defend lyrics are a radically subversive challenge to The Man, well-suited to a nation that sees itself as an independent voice on the world stage.
1. Singers have long queried the cryptic call to “guard Pacific’s triple star”. But New Zealand folk music expert John Archer argues it was a reference to the three stars on Te Kooti’s flag of Māori independence. “Bracken was a committed Irish nationalist,” Archer says. “He was squarely on the side of the Māori from when he first arrived in New Zealand in 1869, during the middle of Te Kooti’s battles with colonial troops, in his campaign for independence for Tūhoe Māori.” That is reinforced by the cover of the 1878 music score, featuring a drawing of the Royal Standard alongside the flag of the independent tribes.

2. In an era in which the British Crown and the Anglican Church demanded greater obeisance than the domestic government, when ill-disciplined posses of colonialists laid waste to Māori villages and Chinese immigrants were subjected to the poll tax and other racist abuses, Bracken’s hymn was extraordinary in opening up New Zealand to “men of every creed and race”. (Spot the obvious omission!)

3. In a rallying call worthy of David Lange at the Oxford Union, Bracken warns that New Zealand should raise arms only is the cause is just and right, “From dissension, envy, hate / And corruption guard our state … Peace, not war, shall be our boast.”

4. Finally, despite the repeated references to God, the anthem utterly ignores New Zealand’s Head of State, the Queen. The significance of this cannot be understated: God Save the Queen had been New Zealand’s national anthem for 137 years, before God Defend was officially adopted in 1977. To fail to pay tribute to the Monarch can only be interpreted as deliberately subversive.

For those who embrace the traditional institutions of Church and State, those who pay homage to a Royal Family 19,000km away, for those who love the Union Jack on our flag and the imperialism it stands for – for you, this anthem is an abomination.
There is, though, one thing on which conservatives and radicals may agree. Whatever one thinks of the lyrics, the tune is a dissonant din, an almost unsingable rollercoaster of a racket. So, in every sense, it really is subversive.”

sorethumb

Rickmann

“We rely on one of the best moats in the world for our defence.” Holy shit ! I hate to disturb this country’s PC ignorance of history or geopolitics, but the mind bogglingly ignorant might check out The Battle of the Coral Sea and the whole Japanese advance around that time, including just how well prepared we were in the event the USN and USMC had not forced back the Japanese. Try the Bob Temple tank and other woefully pathetic things that we desperately developed in preparation for a Japanese invasion – and the reason why men like my father with three children was hurredly trained, ill armed and sent to fight in and then being evacuated wounded from the Solomon Islands campaign.

I was born in late 1945 and my mother said that when he died they founding his wallet a photo of me and another of a row of U.S. Marines lying on a beach where they had been killed by Japanese machine gun fire. But who cares ? The U.N. will protect us, just ask the pole in the Balkans, Rwanda and elsewhere. And gee whiz, who could be interested in a small, unoffensive country at the end of the Earth which just happens to be one of the world’s few net food exporters.

Blazer

High Flying Duck

It was ironic that Germany & Japan benefited from billions in rebuilding funds gifted to them after the war. They were also able to modernise.
Not sure how much of a powerhouse Japan is – seems an enigma on that front. It is an enormous economy though.

Gezza

Delicious irony in the fate of Wright’s Hill Fortress’s in Welly, which I hiked up to a few years back. It’s been restored – minus the guns – now.
– – – – – – – – – – –
Two huge 9.2 inch guns were installed by the Army in 1944, after arriving by ship fom England. The whole gun weighed 135 tons, with the barrel alone weighing 28 tons. The order for the third gun was cancelled after an improvement in the Pacific war situation.

The guns could fire a 380 pound (172 kg) shell up to 18 miles (30 km) across Cook Strait towards Tory channel, or up as far as Plimmerton. Each shell was about three feet (1 metre) long and was propelled by two half charges of 62 pounds (28kg) of cordite.

The guns of course never fired in anger but were test fired, each with three rounds, in 1946 and 47 after the War. The Army reported later that the “proofings,” as they were called, were “most satisfactory”. Broken windows resulted at the Fortress after the blasts.

The Fortress was used for training purposes up to the mid 1950’s but a Government decision in early 1960 resulted in the guns being cut up for scrap and being sold, ironically, to the Japanese. The gun emplacements were filled with rubble and other equipment removed from the Fortress.

Griff.

You do know the difference between social science and hard science ?
Opps thats right in your world you can ignore the implications of well supported physics if you disagree with it.
I do note DPF has had a series of posts from fringe whacks claiming to be scientific lately.
Most amusing to read the fuckwittery in the comments.
My fave was when one of the whackos claimed their favorite paper was a seminal work on the topic.
The paper in question has had three cites in four years.https://citations.springer.com/item?doi=10.1007/s10666-014-9429-z
First obituary of the lead author C. R. Freitas.
Next a paper on the same subject which found a far more realistic conclusion. This has already been cited 9 times.
The third was a comment pointing out all the errors in the pathetic effort of C. R. Freitas et al.
Hence.
The fate of crap scientific papers? They just get ignored .

PDB

Griff: “You do know the difference between social science and hard science ?
Opps thats right in your world you can ignore the implications of well supported physics if you disagree with it.”

I haven’t made any judgement, simply posted an interesting topic from Kiwiblog.

Griff: “in your world you can ignore the implications of well supported physics”

For interest sake where do you stand on the ‘hard science’ or ‘well supported physics’ that explains everything that happened during the 9/11 attacks of 2001? No skin in the game myself just interested in your views…

Griff.

ROFL
Goal post moving .
wtf has 9/11 got to do with anything ?
FWIW.
Jet fuel burns at about 1,000C.Steel is easy bent long before that temperature is reached.Any one who has played with heated steel will know It will start to bend easily at dull red 600C.
I spent a few years bending some pretty high tech alloys for a living .
Metals lose structural strength long before they melt.

DPF and kiwi blog has a ideological bent towards distorting science for political reasons.
DPF has allowed absolute whacks to post on his blog recently for ideological purposes.
The sort of nutters that deny such basic physics as how a domestic clothes dryer works or why moisture from your breath condenses on a cold surface .

PDB

Goal post moving? – Being angry all the time isn’t good for the health Griff – I’m sure there is a scientific paper somewhere that backs that up…..

I’m just (pretending to be) interested in the extent of your scientific views…playing devil’s advocate on 9/11: what about building WTC7 that collapsed exactly like the twin towers (albeit it over a longer timeframe) but wasn’t hit by a plane? Jet fuel as well?

PDB

It’s a rabbit hole to be sure, far too big a scope to discuss here. No doubt the official story is not totally 100% accurate it at least some regards though not to the extent of full-on conspiracy that some push.

On-going studies into the WTC7 collapse like from Dr. J. Leroy Hulsey here: http://www.wtc7evaluation.org/ are still of interest for what they may find.

Griff.

Griff.

I am not angry all the time I just love laughing at halfwits .
You dont even meet that low bar
1/4 to 1/3 wit in bright sunlight….
Do tell us more about your fascination with 9/11.
Is it another global conspiracy like the gibberingly stupid one you believe about climate science? Thought about help? I know a very good councilor who may be of assistance of you can afford her rates …..plus my cut.

PDB

Exactly what I thought – WTC7 doesn’t fit the narrative very well. 9/11 is an interesting one for the neutral as many reputable engineers, physicists and the like don’t totally believe the official story.

Griff: “I am not angry all the time I just love laughing at halfwits”.

Being able to laugh at oneself is a good thing Griff – just don’t let anyone catch you doing so in the mirror – could look a bit…creepy.

sorethumb

The MediaWorks Standards Committee is responsible for considering formal complaints about MediaWorks’ online news content, and deciding whether or not it complied with the Principles set out by the New Zealand Media Council.

Your complaint relates to a video created by a third-party and published by Youtube. MediaWorks is only required to consider complaints about content published by MediaWorks. Therefore, we are not required to accept your complaint.

In any event, we are satisfied that The Project material you referred to in your complaint complied with the Media Council’s Principle of Accuracy, Fairness and Balance.

Discussing Canadian right-wing personality Lauren Southern’s attempts to prevent a refugee ship from docking in Sicily, presenter Jesse Mulligan stated:“She says that women and children would be better to die than come into Europe”.

The Committee has determined that Mr Mulligan did not quote something Ms Southern had actually said, but rather inferred her views from her actions. Having considered Ms Southern’s actions, we are satisfied that Mr Mulligan’s characterisation of her views was accurate.

Kind regards,

Robert Dowd

For the MediaWorks Standards Committee
…………………………….
The Authority declined jurisdiction to accept and consider a complaint referral about a video uploaded to video-sharing website platform YouTube, which featured clips from a broadcast of The Project. The Authority noted that its jurisdiction, which is prescribed under the Broadcasting Act 1989, is limited to consideration of formal complaints about television and radio broadcasts. In this case, the complainant was concerned about content uploaded to YouTube and edited by a third party. The content of the video predominantly comprised commentary by that third party. The Authority therefore did not have jurisdiction to accept and consider the complaint referral.
Declined Jurisdiction
PO Box 9213, Wellington, New Zealand http://www.bsa.govt.nz

The complaint was not about the Youtube video and there was no dispute as to a) which program was being complained about or b) the detail of the complaint. Therefore a pure technicality. The BSA is as left as RNZ.

Zedd

Zedd

I see that the new Minister of housing (Twyford) has offered an ‘official apology’ for all the 800+ people who suffered under the ‘Meth contamination debacle’.. kicked out their houses & lost benefits etc. BUT no one in the ministry is to loss their job, over it !

Twyford basically, pointed his figure at ‘the previous Govt’ & said (paraphrased) ‘They have already lost THEIR jobs’

The response from the Natl party(prev. Govt.)
‘WE were just acting on ‘the best advice… given’ OR were they really just stirring up more ‘Reefer madness style’ HYSTERIA. 43 years & still counting.. (MODA 75)

Gezza

was the first up headline item on 1ewes tonight. The Parliamentary Services(?) report she has received says that while the facts are disputed, that an incident occurred was confirmed.
Jacinda’s announcement appeared to be very focussed, was short and sharp, & determined – & she left the office space immediately afterwards, in excellent Helen Clark style.

The “she is weak” complaint of Bridges (he made it on screen, duh?) has been firmly countered.

Gezza

Phil Twyford also featured, giving a cogent straightforward explanation of why those people who had been unfairly evicted from their HNZ homes following what were known to be scientifically wrong meth test results, were being paid and what matters would be considered case by case.

Judith Collins made herself look completely out of touch and intransigent about the previous government’s complicity in this disgraceful policy, and HNZ officials were shown acknowledging their error and saying they would be formally apologising to every person so disavantaged as well.

Phil did a credible job yesterday countering questions about the FIX THE BLOODY ROAD protest.

Phil is lifting his game. The newbies may be finding their feet. Simon might not yet have quite got his footing.